Review: Sanctuary Spa Brightening Facial Radiance Exfoliator 15ml

I picked this little one up a while ago, and kept it as a ‘travel’ piece of my skincare routine. However, by ‘travel’ I mean visiting my parents once every few months, and didn’t want to bring all of my full size skincare products. I own this in the travel size, since I thought this was an appropriately sized sample instead of buying the full tube. I bought this travel sized one for roughly £2.99 (I don’t have the receipt anymore, and although I looked online, I can’t find the price, so this is an estimate). The full size tube of the exfoliator is £10.50 and has 100ml of product.

The exfoliator comes in the travel size has a lime green tube, with a white cap. Just like any tube you simply squeeze the tube and the product comes out. This is a reasonably useful feature since I didn’t find it dispensed too much product. The size of the bottle was extremely convenient since it could fit in a travel case easily, although I only kept it in one of the smaller pockets of my suitcase. The cap was really secure which is a huge plus – I didn’t have to worry about cleaning my suitcase of the exfoliator. I like that a little goes a long way with this product, since I’ve visited home three times throughout 2014 for roughly a week to two weeks each visit, and I still have around half the product left in the tube.

The exfoliator itself has very large particles in a gel-like paste. This was pretty unusual compared to normal exfoliators I’ve tried which are usually just exfoliating beads, which are quite dry and rough on the skin. I like the gel since it helped smooth the exfoliating particles over the skin very smoothly. I was concerned with how large the particles are, since they were also quite sharp and did scratch the skin a bit. As long as I didn’t rub my skin harshly and kept the skin moist with water while using it, it didn’t harm my skin too much. However, I think the product would be a lot better if the particles were smaller and smoother.

Once washed off the face, my skin felt a lot smoother, although I think this is mostly because of the gel in the scrub, which helped my skin feel more hydrated compared to other dry scrubs. Although I still used my moisturiser immediately after since my skin always feels better from using my moisturiser. My skin doesn’t usually feel damaged from using the product, although if your skin is more sensitive, then this may be an issue. However, as long as you exfoliate with slow, gentle motion and keep the skin moist beforehand, it should make using the product okay.

Overall, this is a reasonably nice product. As a travel product, it doesn’t take up much space, and there’s enough to get you through a two week holiday – longer if you only use it twice a week. I probably won’t purchase this again, although I don’t regret picking this up.